**8. Results**

#### **8.1 General narrative for the project with four preschools**

In a 3-year action research project involving preschool teachers, children, principals and one researcher, we wanted to deepen our understanding of the phenomena of well-being and what enables and limits recovery practices. We sought knowledge about how practices that promote children's recovery can be understood and developed. This chapter presents previous results after the project's 7 months of action research. The children's participation in the process was a starting point. The action research project was divided into several phases, and we used different ways to collect data. Dialogic conversations between middle leaders and researchers were conducted once a month. Dialogical discussions between researchers and principals were done twice during the period. Documents and observations formed the basis for increased understanding and possible changes and interactions between the development

work and research. In the action research project, preschool teachers and principals focused on researching and developing recovery practices to improve their professionalism and knowledge. The first phase began with all preschool staff participating in a meeting, receiving some training in action research from university teachers and discussing previous action research projects. The perceptions of recovery practices at the preschool, both rest and pulse-raising activities, were inventoried as a first survey. The results were presented to the participators after the meeting, and then they collected the children's opinions at each preschool about how they experienced recovery—both rest and pulse at their preschool with a focus on activities and learning environments. The result from teachers and children were shown in mind maps on the valet in the preschools.

This chapter gives an insight into the process and offers preliminary results from the project. All preschools have struggled with the implementation of the project, it took time to read and learn how to do action research in their units, and the processes take time. All preschool middle leaders mean that the time is necessary to involve all staff and get ready to research and work systematically.

#### **8.2 A narrative from the Fir Tree Preschool**

Five preschool teachers, one cook and a principal work at this preschool. The preschool's theme is health, movement and outdoor activities and focuses on health. The preschool offers the children many outdoor and varied activities during the day. The meals are done by an employed cook who prepares the food from high-quality eatables, and the preschool wants to offer healthy meals. The preschool staff discussed the idea of recovery through rest and pulse, and the children became familiar with the concept and its meaning. They have told the team their experiencing recovery. The children and staff explored what is perceived as recovery. These thoughts formed the basis for mind maps that the staff produced and presented visibly on the preschool's walls. Also, the staff have noticed their ideas about what recovery can be in a mind map. They analysed that the team considers recovery too narrowly and needs to expand their perception of what it can be. They are convinced that the children's participation in the action research project can expand the view of what recovery is. In the opinion of recovery, it appears that stress can counteract recovery. Both children and staff mentioned rest as an activity after eating lunch. This topic was something the team wanted to improve and learn more about children's experiences.

The preschool's first action meant they wanted to investigate the possible recovery the children experienced during the rest after the meal. The children offer four different breaks: choice (1) sleeping outside in a pram, choice (2) sleeping inside on a mattress (often time-bound), choice (3) listening to a book in a small group (three children) with a staff member who reads in a separate room, choice 4) getting a massage as recovery. In the morning, the children can request the type of rest they want after lunch, and usually, they get their wish, but sometimes some rest cannot be carried out due to the logistics." *We are not able to do this every day, all staff must take their breaks*"(Middle leader, 1). Likewise, it can be challenging to carry out planned activities when there are substitutes.

When the children talk about their experiences of the rest and try to express different feelings, some share that they enjoy being in the small group of three children who get a book read by an educator, alternative 3. Two children mentioned feeling relaxed and calm in this activity because no "toddlers" were disturbed and loud. The educator read calmly and clearly, allowing all three to comment and ask questions

about the content. "*It will be calm and nice when she reads a story to us, and we can see all the pictures when there are not many of us"* (Child 1).

Regarding massage recovery, choice number four, most children liked it, but two children did not want a massage at all and wanted to choose other rest alternatives. One child expressed that she likes having someone massage her neck, but not on different places of the body (Child, 4).

One of the rests, choice nr two, means the children listen to sound recordings and lie on the floor or a sofa. During an observation, eight children rest that way, and it is a rest that several children seem to appreciate. Comments from children after the activity gave the impression that the children entered a rest phase with recovery, which all children except one child confirmed.

This child only wanted to sleep and rest at home—during the day at preschool, the child wanted to be active and play, and rest was not his cup of tea. *Sleeping at preschool does not feel so good; I'm too big for that and do not want to rest either. It's boring* (Child, 5). This child only wanted the time to pass so it could be possible to play with a friend in the preschool.

Action two at this preschool means we try the rhythm as a starting point for discussing recovery via heart rate and rest. Twelve children gather on a round carpet where the preschool teacher informs them about what will happen. Recovery as a phenomenon and concept is addressed, and the preschool teacher asks the children to try to feel what happens in the body during the rhythm session. A digital program is conducted where the children, as a first step, conduct pulse-raising activities to music and are then asked questions about how it feels in the body. Answers such as "The heart is beating very fast" (Child, 2),; "The pulse feels like fire", (Child, 3) and "The pulse beats faster than before we started".(Child, 5) The level of activity in the movement is increased, and the children can then tell how it feels, and they can tell that the heart is now beating even faster than after the first activity. "The heart is pounding even more now" (Child, 3), a concluding part of the rhythm, means a winding down and meditation where the children can sit, close their eyes, and unwind. They express the difference between the heart-rate-raising activities and the closing part. Observations of the activity show that the children looked relaxed and calm during the last session, and the children also confirmed this later on by talking about the feelings in their bodies. A preschool teacher points out that both actions can be affected by staff being absent due to illness or leave.

Difficulties in carrying out activities are mainly mentioned because staff have the right to rest, and getting the logistics to work can sometimes be challenging. Likewise, it cannot be easy to carry out planned activities when there are substitutes. It also appears that some children do not wish to rest in any way but want to play instead. Observation shows that the children know the body's reactions during pulse-raising activities. Several of them express that they enjoy the final part of the action, where they wind down and close their eyes.

#### **8.3 A narrative from the Oak Tree Preschool**

The Oak Preschool is a unit of 20 children and five staff: three preschool teachers, one Montessori-educated leisure educator, and one medical resource for children with medical needs, in addition to the principal leading the preschool and the school included in the unit. Preschool Oak is a private and non-profit association where the board heads the school. The orientation is Montessori pedagogy, and the operating idea is that everyone should feel good and develop sustainable self-leadership. This

preschool first wanted to explore if and how their collective morning meeting with the children could be improved and give them learning moments instead of waiting for the activity to start.

The first action in this preschool is to explore how the morning meeting activity could be improved. Over time, the preschool teachers observed and noted that transitioning from a move that would include going to the toilet and washing hands created anxiety as the children gradually gathered for the meeting. There was a waiting time before the activity morning meeting could start, and the staff wanted to change this to avoid stress for the children. The waiting time could mean chaos, high noise levels and children sitting and waiting for the meeting. It could also mean that an adult read a book to a child and that other children flipped through books, but the educators saw it as an opportunity that needed to be improved and changed. They decided to have a "warm-up time" before the meeting. The name was created by the middle leader that drew comparisons to sports. "Before we start with the traditional morning meeting, we must warm up!" (Middle leader, 2). The activity represents the time and activities when the children came from washing hands and visiting toilets, one by one, and participating in the warm-up. The movement was observed, and the children were getting into the action smoothly. Two preschool teachers were present in addition to the one leading the activity and one of them took field notes. The training aims to contain pulse-raising activities with movements and rest to contribute to the recovery. The staff tried this activity by removing perceived stressful moments for the children and replacing them with a warm-up exercise.

After action one, a reflective conversation was held between staff and researchers, where the action was evaluated. The preschool teachers decided to try this type of action about once a week, and all the preschool staff should be holding the warm-up and the morning meeting before a new evaluation. It was decided that each preschool teacher should be allowed to put their imprint on the activity; "We *"must be given the freedom to carry out the activity based on our planning and what we want to do during the activity." (Teacher, 4).* During the evaluation, the staff expressed that time to analyse and talk to the researcher and each other was necessary and valuable.

The following action, which was action number two, a new warm-up and morning meeting, was observed and documented by one preschool teacher. Three educators were present, and one was responsible for planning and implementing the warm-up time arrangement. Another preschool teacher took field notes. The observation notes, including the researcher and staff, were analysed during reflective conversations. The analysis could distinguish essential parts: (1) The meeting needs to contain movement, including pulse raising and rest. (2) To maintain attention, the preschool teacher must give the warm-up within a limited interval. (3) The meeting leader must be responsive to the group's daily form and flexible to change structure and content if required. (4) Other participating educators must not remove their focus from the group because the observer noticed that the children were disturbed if the adults spoke to each other, even if they whispered. It became clear that the meeting needed structure from start to end. Participants at the reflection meeting decided they must dare to review each other and give constructive criticism to achieve a collegial development that can promote the project's goal." *We must dare to talk to each other and ask questions when we see that something is not going as we thought and how the preschool teacher can change his actions for the children's good!"* (Teacher, 6) The preschool teachers also argue that they need to cooperate in the meeting and that the leader should not feel that somebody else should take over the meeting if we notice that we have to act to complete the leader to help depending on the situation with the children. *"We* 

#### *Preschool Improvement Practices DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113143*
